By Charles Igbo
Perhaps, he meant it as a joke. Perhaps, he mis-spoke.
But whatever, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari shocked Nigerians when he said that, if he so wanted, he and the ruling party, the APC, would have used security personnel to over-run opposition States and won them during the 2019 General Elections.
The President made this statement at a very inappropriate occasion.
It was at a meeting between him, North-east Governors, the National Security Adviser, his Service Chiefs, the Inspector General of Police, and heads of other Security Agencies.
The meeting was to discuss the serious and very disturbing security situation in the region.
Insurgents had reduced The region and the Northern part of The country to one big killing field. Blood flows like a river. Most have turned refugees in their own country.
The meeting was to tinker with a response, and so reassure the people.
Not a few Nigerians, rightly or wrongly, have the impression, wrongly, or rightly, that the Military has not done their best, or if they had done, their best was no longer enough. Even the President thinks so.
On , at least, two occasions, he had said so. Not a few Nigerians, most Governors, and the National Assembly, had asked The President to replace his Service Chiefs. He has majorly ignored the calls.
One of the Governor’s present at the meeting, Prof. Babagana Zulum of Borno state, miraculously, escaped death when gun men ambushed his convoy along Baga road. The Governor alleged It was soldiers that attacked him, thus absolving Boko Haram.
It is the same military, which has not been able to over-run the insurgents, that the President flaunted before governors, including three, from the opposition party, boasted he could have used to over-run the opposition States for his party.
Among the Peoples Democratic Party governors, who were at the meeting were Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba).
He, however, gave his government a pay on the back.He noted that given what his administration met in 2015, it had done its best.
He words “We have problems with resources and security. You know what we inherited. The people of the North East will appreciate what this administration has done. The general report I am getting, from the conventional ones, from the intelligence sources, is that the Army should do better and this is the truth.
“It is so often coming to me that I have to believe it. I listened to your representation, the governors who are on the hotspot now in the North-East, Adamawa, Bauchi and the rest of them who are enjoying peace. I hope they are respecting the sacrifice made by the military.
“I assure you North-East governors, especially the governor of Borno, that we go to bed and wake up thinking about you and how to secure our country. That is the fundamental responsibility of a government; security. In our party, we recognize this. We campaigned on three fundamental issues: security, economy and fighting corruption.
“Nigerians, we thank God, understood us and they voted for us. In 2019, we went round the whole country, saying the same thing and apologizing for not doing better, but we are doing our best.
“I think Nigerians believe us and we did our best. It is true that we lost some states as a ruling party in a developing country, which is normal. I am proud of that because we are impartial, that is why as the ruling party, we lost some states. That means we have our own mistakes.
“Some of those that defeated us are sitting here. We know we are a developing country but we respect our country, otherwise, with the use of the army, the police and the rest of them, we could have overrun you. We just wanted to show that we are humane and we are Nigerians. We will continue to do our best.”
*This is a developing story. Reactions, later…
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